Sorry Mr Trump, I know it was a great speech justifying the strike on Syria, but I’m not buying it. For heavens sake Mr President, just for once, read the international press. Surely some sycophant White House advisor might have hinted to you that the US has been funding (and at times even using) illegal weapons with great abandon in the Middle East. When Saudi Arabia has used barrel bombs in Yemen …and in Syria too… (some with chlorine),or used cluster munitions banned by almost every nation except the US, or white phosphorus, surely Mr President you knew that some of those munitions carried the made in the US label, and at the very least were subsidized by the US …ahem…. via your White House.

Yes we agree that anyone who deliberately causes the death of innocents is indeed open to the charge of behaving like an animal. I guess, way back, that is why I protested the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, and for that matter why I protested supply of Sarin to one Saddam Hussein who was at the time a friend of the US and having trouble with the Kurds. And now, surely, even someone like yourself, Mr President, who has at last caught up with the horrors of World War One gas warfare might have also noticed that untold civilians also died in hideous suffering as a result of the US invasion in Iraq sold to the world as the US looking for those weapons of mass destruction. In that invasion white phosphorus, fuel air explosives and depleted Uranium were used with great enthusiasm.

If you truly care about attacks on hospitals Mr Trump, why have heads not rolled when hospitals in Afghanistan are accidentally bombed by US planes? Heads certainly roll in the White House for much less. Why does the US continue to sell white phosphorus to Israel where it is now reluctantly admitted to have been used against Palestinians?

Here is just one sample paragraph from one Amnesty International report summary.

“The Saudi Arabia-led coalition has also used cluster munitions, lethal explosive weapons banned under international law. When launched cluster bombs release dozens – sometimes hundreds – of small “bomblets”, which often lie unexploded and can cause horrific injuries long after the initial attack. Amnesty International has documented the coalition’s use of at least four different types of cluster munitions, including US, UK and Brazilian manufactured models.”

Perhaps it is true that anyone who breaks the international agreements needs a short sharp lesson but unless the response is even handed is it surprising some observers might call it hypocrisy?